South Asia Citizens Web

It is a countdown towards impounding waters in the 214 km land stretch where more than 40,000 families are residing till date.There are standing crops and massive plantations; thousands of pakka houses, schools, other public and private services erected; hundreds of temples, tens of mosques (as opposed to three temples claimed by the authorities), adivasi gods and worship places, all of which will be submerged. There are lakhs of trees in the submergence area. People are continuing with their daily lives, and except for a few villages in the hilly mountainous region, falling in Alirajpur district, all other villages in the plains, at least 150 have large populations (hundreds of families in each) with functioning panchayats. Farmers, labourers, fish workers, shopkeepers all who have fought the battle for Narmada over last 32 years, will be forced to submerge and evicted if the gates are closed.

The epic, heroic legal battle fought by the barely lettered wife of a small Gujarati cattle trader has caught the imagination of many in the country. The judgement of the Bombay High Court on Thursday – which upheld the life sentence awarded to 11 men convicted by a lower court of raping her and killing 14 members of her family, and also set aside the acquittal of seven policemen and doctors for tampering with and destroying evidence – offers hope not just to her but to us all.

The richest sense of irony I ever felt was evoked by a PTI report, dated 13 May, 1997 from Siliguri, that a bust of Charu Majumdar had been decapitated.

"Deeply concerned at the current rise in animosity and antagonism between India and Pakistan, we urge both governments and their security establishments to take all steps possible towards improving relations." - a citizen’s statement

National Alliance of People’s Movements is deeply saddened to learn of the demise of Justice (Retd.) Lelila Seth, well-known (she disliked the word eminent) jurist and champion of rights of women and marginalized genders. Her 6 decades of work as a legal practitioner including about two decades as a judge was a testimony to the values that she carried easily on her – conviction, compassion and wisdom.